Milwaukee Man Confesses to Series of Rapes

A Milwaukee man has confessed to raping several women on the city’s north and west sides earlier this year, police announced Tuesday.

According to officials with the Milwaukee Police Department, Johnathan Kirk followed teenage girls as young as 15, and women up to 34, on foot for blocks before forcing them into backyards or garages and sexually assaulting them. Police found Kirk after they saturated the area of the attacks with plain-clothed officers.

Kirk was first arrested for loitering and prowling on April 26, police Chief Edward Flynn said. “During the investigation, several suspects were arrested and from all of them, buccal swabs were taken for DNA samples,” Flynn told reporters Tuesday. “The suspect in these serial rapes was one of these people. When the state crime lab linked his DNA swab to the DNA recovered from the victims, he was arrested again on May 5.”

Kirk confessed to a detective from the sensitive crimes division, according to Flynn.